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Alumnus Turns Historian to Uncover Little-Known Mission from World War II

November 20, 2013

Gary Cooper’s first long commitment of
service to his nation was a 35-year career in the U.S. Navy,
primarily as a submariner, retiring with the rank of commander. You
might say his second extended commitment came through a research
project in retirement, a project that will be published next year
as the nonfiction book Fatal Error: The Final Flight of a WWII
Seaplane Bomber.

Mr. Cooper, a 1954 alumnus of Saint Leo College
Preparatory School, a predecessor institution of the university,
shared his World War II story earlier this month at University
Campus with fellow alumni. The event was also part of Saint Leo’s
40-year anniversary celebration of educating the military.

The audience was
visibly impressed as the author recounted the story of how a
longtime family friend, four years ago, turned over to him a
suitcase they had found that had been discarded and set aside. The
friends recognized the contents of the case held clues to part of a
personal history of a World War II Navy officer, and thought the
story and records probably warranted attention.

Inside, Cooper found some of the military records of
an Ensign who served with Lieutenant DeLand Croze, a capable,
handsome 25-year-old. One discovery lead to another, and Mr. Cooper
was eventually compelled to research the life of each crew member.
Eventually, he crafted a narrative relating the story of a crew and
its dangerous assignment, undertaken almost at the end of the
war.

As Mr. Cooper wrote, on June 4, 1945, Croze addressed
his young men, most of whom had just finished combat training and
were about to embark on their first actual mission together. They
had been sent to the Philippine Islands, and were targeting an area
under Japanese occupation. They were expected to bomb vessels
carrying supplies to the Japanese, and were warned of Japanese
gunboats protecting the supply vessels. Cutting off the supply
lines would help weaken the enemy, so that was the mission. Croze
told his men what he expected this way:

“Good morning men. The Seventh Fleet Air Command has
ordered us to scour the east coast of Borneo, the Straits and west
coast of the Celebes for enemy shipping. Except for local fishing
boats, anything that moves in the water is fair game. Combat
Information has advised that there is a Jap gunboat patrolling the
south end of the Strait. So far it has not been seen but I plan to
find it today. I expect each one of you to be vigilant and when we
find that gunboat, I’ll need the help of every one of you to
destroy it.”

The crew performed
superbly, but eventually the plane sustained heavy damage and the
crew had to prepare quickly for a water landing. A message was sent
in Morse code asking for a rescue, but tragically, an error in the
coding relayed inaccurate information on the plane’s landing
location. That meant the Allied Armed Forces lost valuable time
searching in the wrong areas for the downed plane with a crew that
had little means of protecting its members.

That was the error that proved to be fatal for most
of the crew—only three of the 14 young men involved survived, in
spite of acts of selflessness and grit. The mission was ultimately
fatal also for three men who were dispatched from a secret, elite
team operating within the Australian forces with orders to find and
rescue the still-missing members of American crew.

Although Mr.
Cooper’s research obviously could not change the past, his work has
brought to light personal narratives of men whose service deserve
honor and recognition. That helped some members of surviving
families, Mr. Cooper told the audience. One woman, who lived to an
advanced age, was relieved finally to discover what had happened
during the war to her much-loved younger brother. Mr. Cooper also
discovered other memorabilia that is making its way to museums.
Ultimately, Mr. Cooper’s work (four years of research and writing)
broadens and deepens the public’s understanding of the war. His
book will be published in 2014, and available through the online
retailer Amazon. An Australian documentary will also be released
next year telling the story from that nation’s point of view.